I followed the hype: Reddit, Slashdot's front page, months of thumbs up on my blog and various video forums by Linux users for OpenShot. Given that I'm longing for a usable Linux video editor since 2003, and given that OpenShot version 1.0 had just been released, I naturally gave it a go, by also downloading its provided dependencies on my Ubuntu Linux 9.10.

"GIMP is better than Photoshop in many ways. First of all, it's easier to use.

It's hard to find people like you these days. GIMP's GUI is awkward, that's common sense. "

No, it isn't. GIMP's UI is extremely, let me emphasize, extremely good. It was generally well thought out, it has been extensively tested and it is structured such that the user can work quickly and productively. Compared to the total junk that is photoshop... there is just no comparison.

The problem the GIMP has is that it is *unusual* and most people don't care for that. The people who stand the most to benefit from the great GIMP UI are the people least likely to use the GIMP: professionals. I say they are least likely to use it not because it's a bad UI, but primarily because professionals normally learn Photoshop *first*. Once you are used to that it is very hard to unlearn and relearn. Sit a pro-Photoshop guy down in front of the GIMP and he will be begging to go back to Photoshop within hours simply because it doesn't work as he expects it to, because it is not Photoshop and that is all he knows.

The second reason professionals, those who stick it out and learn how to use the GIMPs UI to their advantage, don't use the GIMP is an example of the same sad story we find in a lot of F/OSS projects: features. Photoshop has a lot of things it supports or can do that the GIMP can't (yet) do. For most users these specific features don't matter at all, but for the professional who needs them they are essential.

Criticisms of the GIMP which complain of lacking features or slow development are often legitimate. Sometimes a complaint of a lack of feature is invalid because the feature is there but it simply is called something else and was not discovered by the one who complained. Otherwise, such complaints are fine.

The people who primarily complain about the GIMP are Joe-Average-Amateur-Nobody who has his warzed copy of Photoshop, or bought it to fix red eye or add lens flare effects. These people complain about the UI, because it's different and not familiar. They don't use Photoshop (or the GIMP) enough to appreciate what they have.

This is you. Congratulations.

Sadly, the GIMP developers are gradually cracking under the pressure from the vocal majority of idiots who don't know what they're talking about. They have slowly introduced UI changes which make the GIMP more like Photoshop, sometimes at the expense of usability. If only there were another GTK image editor which would serve the needs of this class of loser! The GIMP would soldier on without such harmful interference.

The day the GIMP starts defaulting to one-big-window will be a sad day indeed.